News:

For those who don't know, regular poster Bob (aka Ajaffa) and his wife recently lost his house and many of their possessions (but apparently not his engines!) to a bush fire. Please see this post for details of an appeal to help him rebuild. Thanks, everyone from LEF.https://listerengine.com/smf/index.php?topic=8876.0

I sent the cam to Butch who installed the new weights and see no change.

The engine will pull about 1600 watts but if I load it with another 1000 watts it just won'tdo the deed.

With no load I set the speed to 720 engine rpms. That will give me 1800 at the gen head.I see 120 volts at 63 HZ. With a 1600 load it does 117 volts @60 HZ.But another 1000 watts and the voltage will fall to 93 volts @ 54 HZ.

The engine is not "working" at this speed the governor just won't "pick up".

I tried several springs and spring combinations.

I am thinking a larger gen pulley to bring the engine rpms up to about 800 or so.

The engine has always run very close EGT's but I see a slight difference now. I guess this is doto the new cam lobe on the #1 cylinder. I haven't reset the timing on that side yet but I don't believeit is enough to cause the problem I am having.

I am open to ideas.

Gary

Hi Garry,

It sounds like a too short or weak governor spring, as you know, the spring pulls the rack open until the revs come up and the gov weights throw outward and pull the rack back to the set speed, it has to be the spring.Matt

Hello and welcome to the LEF,As for the manuals the India supplied manual is most valuable to kindle a fire and a Lister CS manual is of limited use due to the many changes made to the India engines. However if you desire an India manual I can send you one providing you are either in the USA or willing to pay postage. I have several OEM Lister manuals but none I care to part with. They are downloadable from a few sources last I knew one of them being The Internal Fire Museum. You must join the site to have access to the manuals. Send me a PM if you desire.

As far as I have been able to determine premium as applied to Metro branded engines means the engine has extra cost accessories included. Might be a starter or water pump or oil pump all or any combination of them. It does not mean the engine was assembled with any more care or any less sand than any other Metro,, at least in my experience. I haven ever seen a Metro branded engine that was a clone or close copy of a CS, all are roller bearing splash lubricated, 5 stud classic "listeroids"

The test for sand is easy, pull the crankcase door and drain the oil. Then run your finger around in the bottom of the crankcase checking for grit and once found you have a choice to make. Just remember that it does not need to be 1/2" deep to destroy the engine. If you find ANY sand or slag it will do a number on the engine, the only variable pertaining to quantity is how long it takes to destroy the moving parts.

38AC,

Just wanted to commend you on your cam timing- valve lash article of a few years ago, did you end up with more info on Roid camshafts, I have always thought the relationship between the inlet lobe and the injection lobe to be the most important for making power without smoke. Apparently the Indians aren't alone in their haphazard approach to valve timing, I have read an interesting article on a popular Italian sports motorcycle, where the as installed cam timing can be all over the shop, usually retarded from factory specs, sometimes up to 15 deg.

Also do they still just press the crankshaft timing gear on the Listeroid with no key to locate it, I suppose it would only end up about half a tooth out anyway.Thanks very much for your good work ferreting out the info on cam timing and related info.

So, as I got home in the Landy (a 1999 TD5) I sat a moment and listening to the centrifugal oil filter spool down, it takes around 25 seconds, I started to think.(I'm sure Ed has warned about this in the past)

If a steering pump motor, running around 125 PSI, was rigged to a centrifugal oil filter housing, with a standard filter would it pull enough crap out to make it all worthwhile?

If you've nothing to do when you're next round your dad's scrapyard, Glort.........

Anyone any ideas?

Cheers Stef

I think it's a good idea too, no reason why it wouldn't work, only thing is, is a PS pump a high head, low flow type of pump, would it maintain pressure at a flow rate suitable to feed the centrifuge. I think 30 psi is sufficient to power the centrifuge, but more would be better.Cheers, Matt. Aus.

Hey glort I knew you would dive in, the gas thing was just out of interest and the fact when I store my boat in winter I need to take the bottle out for insurance reasons. So engine + bottle....

If I would use the bottle sometimes I would use a torch on the bottle to get the gas out, it would freeze. (sounds more dramatic then it is). Not bullshitting propane and butane have verry different boiling points, to lazy to look it up again but butane beeing someting like 10 degr celcius. So if in cold weather your draining the bottle....Thats why in summer you have a load more butane like 30%. You can find it somewhere on internet. But the last bit of the bottle was not nice to run it really started to knock badly.

With the natural gas the economic reason is not there in my case almost same price, but I used it and it worked only I should increase flow, was like 10 % of the load.

I know one point your very keen on the water injection, if you burn fuel you got a lot of water aswell hydrocarbons...with gas I believe its even more. I was condensing the exhaust gas so I already got liters of water draining from the heatexchanger and when the boiler reached it's temperature the condensing would happen somewhere further down the line making a mess.I'll promise that when I start the plant up again I will give it a try with extra water but for the exhaustgas heat exchanger I do not see the advantage (yet). Promise one day I will try.

For the last years I put to much time in my chp plant I need to catch up with some other stuff I still work and just bought some garage that I am busy with.I love this stuff so it will start again.Bernhard

Hi Saba, You are correct about the two liquid gases evaporating at different rates, butane boils at about 0deg c, so it is last to leave the bottle, the two liquids are mixtures, not solutions and have very little 'polar' bonding of the molecules, as evidenced by your observation of the knocking that occurs during the last of the cylinder's contents, if they didn't boil at different rates, refinery distillation columns wouldn't work.Matt12.

Hi Rob, I'm a newby to this forum but am an ex motor mechanic, (retired).Did you notice any scars on the piston skirts, assuming they are alloy pistons, if so, the pistons are 'grabbing' the bores, due to insufficient clearance, if not, then it's likely the top rings are too tight, ( too little end gap), this gap should in your case be around 4 thou per inch of bore, 4x4 = 16 thou.Hope you have a successful outcome.